Saturday, February 4, 2017

Many apologies for not posting updates in the past month. It was a whirlwind, both in the community and in personal lives, and continues to be one.

On Tuesday, January 10, the Planning Commission unanimously voted to DENY approval of LG Realty's Preliminary Land Development Plan. This approval was required for them to move forward with their proposal to reconfigure the public park and their site to accommodate a new 50,000 s.f. Whole Foods, 200 or so units of market rate housing, and about 600 parking spaces in a multi-story parking garage on the edge of the park.

The official transcript has not yet been made public, but among the concerns cited by Commissioners in their deliberations were:

Concerns for traffic and pedestrian access to the site in relation to the surrounding neighborhood

Lack of community engagement in the development and vetting of the PLDP

That the proposal does not "create a favorable environmental, social and
economic impact on the City" [important! This is a direct quote from the Zoning Code for one of the criteria that Commission should use to review the proposal]

That the proposal does not actually meet the criteria established by City Council in the zone change from April 2016, particularly in relation to the reconfiguration of the park.

If you want to actually watch the discussion among the Commission, Jacquea Mae took live video of the hearing that you can view on Facebook.

But of course...

LG Realty filed an appeal of the decision not a week later, before the official transcript had even been released. In their appeal, they claim that the decision was "unabashedly political". The process for the appeal is that it will go to conference before a judge in late February, with the parties then providing briefs to the judge within a time frame to be determined at the conference. There is no testimony taken. It could be three to six months before a final decision is rendered by the judge. And then there would be an opportunity for either party to appeal THAT decision, which could add another 1-2 years to the process.

However, in the meantime...

view from Negley

view from Negley

LG Realty decided to cut down all the trees on their property (NOT the park - they don't have legal access to it yet).

fence work in starting...

not like we will have any more snow due to climate change, but the Enright Park sledding hill was well used

LG Realty is in the process of putting up a fence to keep the community off of the small hill that sits adjacent to the park (and is their property) and has been used for decades as a sledding hill for the kids in the neighborhood.

There was a brief interlude when we were all being encouraged to come together and work through the differences on the development. [Qualifier to this piece: the main contention of the community is that they are attempting to take public land, in the form of the park, to enhance their development, and yet have not met the standards that were established. As in much of the reporting on Penn Plaza and Enright Park, is sounds in this article as if the developer is only working on their own property and not receiving massive benefit from a reconfiguration of a public park. Our position remains that, if one is taking advantage of public assets, the public has the right and the responsibility to weigh in on the development above and beyond what might be required of a development solely on private property.]

notices appeared on the site Friday morning.

AND OF COURSE... LG Realty has filed ANOTHER claim and posted THESE notices on the fence surrounding the site.

Essentially, they are claiming that because a WRITTEN decision of the Planning Commission has not been issued within the time frame cited, their project is "deemed approved" and they plan to move "full steam ahead". We should note that the actual Planning Commission vote DID occur within the time frame cited (although it's questionable as to whether or not that actually applies in this case), and that there is not a clear requirement that there be written decisions regardless. In the past, Planning Commission decisions were simply recorded into the transcript of the proceedings.

Before the end of the day, the Mayor's Office had issued a strongly worded statement on the matter, stating “...planning commission explicitly denied Pennley Park’s application
and development plan within the legal time period of the official
submission. We will fight these legal tricks before the Common Pleas
court.”

Thank you Mayor Peduto for assuring East Liberty, and other neighborhoods that are facing developer pressures, that you stand with Planning Commission and support their decisions!

And PLEASE take a moment to read the Love Notes to East Liberty that were posted on the Penn Plaza fence as part of that event. Thank you Rachel Nunes for taking such care to document them. They were, not surprisingly, removed by building management a few days later.

Things may be moving too fast to get onto the website for a little bit, but please follow along on Facebook and on Twitter!

(And we promise to post with information not related to the park soon! Good things coming to the Enright Community Garden this year. Stay tuned in order to get involved!)

About Enright Park

Enright Park Neighborhood Association is comprised of homeowners, renters, public housing residents, and landlords who live in close proximity to Enright Parklet in Pittsburgh's East Liberty neighborhood.

In recent years, we have seen a dramatic transformation of our community, which has resulted in the on-going displacement of our friends and neighbors. This displacement has disproportionately impacted people of color, seniors living on fixed incomes, low-income working families, and the many ways in which these groups intersect.

The Enright Park Neighborhood Association was established to advance the joint causes of affordable housing, public open space, and an inclusive approach to planning and development that will build and enhance a livable East Liberty for everyone in our community. We intend to win a better East Liberty for everyone, and to help set a new standard self-determination for our communities.

Please join us, and let us know how we can support and promote your voice too. For membership information, please complete the form here.

For more information, including media, please contact us at enright.park@gmail.com.